Where is the winter?

Winter is coming. Or so we thought. While ski racers and weekend warriors across the the country were fighting over the small patches of snow that were finally open to the public, we made the call to hang back in Albuquerque for one more weekend. It is always somewhat frustrating to be at home while watching updates on social media of other teams skiing; though, it was pretty obvious that the skiing up in Colorado was not that sweet. Being on snow early is always comforting and necessary but this year we decided to take the mountain bikes out for one more ride instead.

On Sunday morning we headed up to the top of the Sandia’s to do some downhill mountain biking. So, instead of skiing in the snow and dirt, we biked in the snow and dirt. It was 35 degrees Fahrenheit at the top of the mountain and the air was thick with fog. Even though we knew that the trails would not be in the best condition, we were all very eager to get the wind in our faces and one last thrill of mountain biking in for the fall. In my opinion, the biking was much more beneficial than skiing on one run with 1,000 of our closest friends from Denver would have been. The conditions were completely inconsistent through snow, rocks, deep mud, and slick tree roots. Almost all of us took some tumbles, some worse than others; I myself took a pretty pathetic fall into a pile of mud where I then laid stuck for about a minute simply contemplating life. However, the biking challenged us to take chances, stay balanced, and get that feeling back of being on the edge of control again, even if it wasn’t on skis. It was a great day of biking and thanks to Youri, we were able to do a couple of laps while he shuttled us back up to the top of the mountain in the van. We were coated in mud and our fingers were freezing but not one of us could stop smiling. It isn’t the easiest call to make to cancel a weekend of skiing but I know that we got way more out of our time at home than we would have fighting for turns in Colorado. Now the bikes are tucked away for good and our skis are dusted off and we are headed to Colorado for real to take all of our hard work from the fall and let the real fun begin!